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Armidale-class patrol boat
|module2= |Ship beam= |Ship draught= |Ship propulsion=2 x MTU 16V M70 2,320 kW diesels driving twin propellers |Ship speed= |Ship range= at |Ship boats=2 x Zodiac RHIBs |Ship complement=21 standard, 29 maximum |Ship sensors=2 radars |Ship EW=Prism III radar warning system Toplite electro-optical detection system Warrlock direction finding system |Ship armament=1 x Rafael Typhoon stabilised gun mount fitted with a 25 mm (1 in) M242 Bushmaster autocannon 2 x 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine guns }} }} The Armidale class is a class of patrol boats built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning for a class of vessels to replace the fifteen ''Fremantle'' class patrol boats began in 1993 as a joint project with the Royal Malaysian Navy, but was cancelled when Malaysia pulled out of the process. The project was reopened in 1999 under the designation SEA 1444, with the RAN as the sole participant. Of the seven proposals tendered, the Austal Ships/Defence Maritime Services proposal for twelve vessels based on an enlarged was selected. The first vessel, , commissioned into the RAN in June 2005. Two more patrol boats were ordered in 2005 to provide a dedicated patrol force for the North West Shelf Venture, bringing the class to fourteen. The Armidale''s are longer and heavier than their ''Fremantle class predecessors, with improved seakeeping ability and increased range, allowing them to reach Australia's offshore territories. The ships are multi-crewed, with three ship's companies available for every two vessels; this allows the patrol boats to spend more time at sea without cutting into sailors rest or training time. However, during their early service life, there were problems with the fuel systems across the class, and a 20-bunk auxiliary accommodation compartment has been banned from use after toxic fumes were found in the compartment on at least two occasions. All fourteen vessels were constructed by Austal Ships at Henderson, Western Australia, with the last entering service in February 2008. The Armidale class ships are operated by the Australian Patrol Boat Group, and based in Cairns and Darwin. They are primarily tasked with border protection, fisheries patrols, and the interception of unauthorised arrivals by sea, although two vessels are permanently assigned to protecting the oil and gas production facilities of the North West Shelf Venture. A fictional Armidale class boat, HMAS Hammersley, appears in the Australian military drama series Sea Patrol from the second season onwards. Development and tendering Planning for the Armidale class began in 1993, as a plan to replace the ''Fremantle'' class, which was due for retirement in 1998.Kerr, Plain sailing This evolved into a joint program with Malaysia to construct an offshore patrol craft. When Malaysia pulled out, the plan was scrapped, and the Fremantle''s underwent a life-extending refit.Heron & Powell, in ''Australian Maritime Issues 2006, p. 129 The cost of maintaining the aging vessels prompted the Department of Defence to create the Replacement Patrol Boat program, which received the procurement project designation SEA 1444. SEA 1444 marked several departures from the Department's standard acquisition requirements. Instead of specifying a number of vessels, the coverage of 3,000 ship-days per year (with 1,800 to be spent on border protection operations, and a surge capability of 3,600 days) was given, with the producer to determine how many ships were needed to meet this. The ships had to meet specific performance parameters, such as the ability to conduct boarding operations in conditions up to Sea State 4, and to maintain surveillance capability up to Sea State 5.Heron & Powell, in Australian Maritime Issues 2006, p. 130 The producer was also required in the contract to provide support and maintenance for the ships, for fifteen years after construction completed. Nine companies expressed interest in the project; of these, seven had the required capability to build the ships.Finalists await Patrol Boat decision, in DefenceTODAY, p. 36 These seven were narrowed down to three based on each tender's merit, competitiveness with the other tenders, and successful meeting of Australian industry involvement targets for both construction and long-term support. Austal Ships and Defence Maritime Services (DMS) partnered to offer twelve ships based on an expanded version of the latter's ''Bay'' class patrol boat, in use with the Australian Customs Service. The companies submitted two proposals for a vessel, one with a steel hull, and one with an aluminium hull; the latter offering a 21% reduction in fuel consumption.Finalists await Patrol Boat decision, in DefenceTODAY, p. 38 Australian Defence Industries (ADI) tendered a design based on the Royal Danish Navy's ''Flyvefisken'' class patrol vessel.Finalists await Patrol Boat decision, in DefenceTODAY, p. 40 The vessel was to be built with a glass-reinforced plastic hull, similar to ADI's ''Huon'' class minehunters. The Tenix proposal was a variant of the search and rescue vessel constructed for the Philippine Coast Guard. The tender was awarded to the Austal/DMS partnership in December 2003. The contract was valued at A$553 million, with each ship costing between A$24 million and A$28 million to construct.Kerr, Patrol boats shake down fuel faults During the 2004 federal election, the Coalition promised to acquire two more patrol boats to provide a dedicated patrol force for the oil and gas producing facilities located off the north-west coast of Australia. These were ordered in 2005. Design and construction All fourteen ships were constructed by Austal at their shipyard in Henderson, Western Australia.Wertheim (ed.), The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, p. 22 Lead ship was commissioned into the RAN in June 2005. Two other patrol boats were delivered to the RAN in 2005, six in 2006, and five in 2007, with the final ship in the class, , delivered in October 2007 and commissioned in February 2008. At one stage, six vessels were being constructed simultaneously. Each patrol boat has a length of , a beam of , a maximum draught of , and a displacement of 270 tons. The hull is of the semi-displacement vee type, and is fabricated from aluminum alloy. The ship is designed to a combination of Det Norske Veritas standards for high-speed light craft and RAN requirements: a lot of effort went into avoiding attempts to overengineer the Armidale''s or turn them into 'miniature warships'. The ''Armidale''s can travel at a maximum speed of , and are driven by two propeller shafts, each connected to an MTU 16V M70 diesel. The ships have a range of at , allowing them to patrol the waters around the distant territories of Australia, including the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island. The ''Armidale class has demonstrated an improved seakeeping ability over the preceding Fremantle class: the Armidale''s are longer, 85 tons heavier, and have hydraulic stabiliser fins and trim tabs incorporated into the design, allowing them to survive conditions up to Sea State 9. The vessels are designed for standard patrols of 21 days, with a maximum endurance of 42 days. Weapons and systems The main armament of the ''Armidale class is a Rafael Typhoon stabilised gun mount fitted with an M242 Bushmaster cannon. This cannon has a rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute, and is controlled remotely from the bridge. Two machine guns are also carried.Heron & Powell, in Australian Maritime Issues 2006, p. 132 Boarding operations are performed by two , waterjet propelled rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIB), which carry ten people (a fully equipped, eight-strong boarding party, and two boat crew). The RHIBs are larger and more powerful than the single RHIB aboard a Fremantle, are capable of operating independently of their mothership, and carry their own communications, navigation, and safety equipment.Heron & Powell, in Australian Maritime Issues 2006, p. 131 Each RHIB has a dedicated cradle and davit, the boats can be launched and recovered easily, and a centralised 'dressing room' incorporated into the ship's design has streamlined the deployment and return of personnel. The patrol boats are fitted with S band and X band surface search radars, a Toplite electro-optical detection system, and a Warrlock direction finding system. A Prism III radar warning system was fitted to the last two boats during construction, and refitted to the rest. Complement Each patrol boat has a standard ship's company of 21 personnel, with a maximum of 29 (not including use of the austere compartment). Unlike the Fremantle class patrol boats, the Armidale''s do not have a permanently assigned ship's company. Instead, there are 21 crews established for the 14 ''Armidale class patrol boats, which are divided up into four divisions: Attack, Assail, Ardent, and Aware. The first three of the Divisions are assigned six crews for four ships, while Aware has three crews for two ships. The ships are continually manned, with two out of three crews actively deployed while the third undergoes leave or training, or prepares to transfer into a ship: a handover can be accomplished in less than six hours. The intention of multi-crewing is to allow the ships to spend more time at sea, without compromising sailors' rest time or training requirements. Junior sailors are housed in four-berth cabins, as opposed to the central sixteen-berth mess deck of the Fremantle''s, while senior sailors and commissioned officers either have individual or share two-berth cabins. Personnel have access to e-mail and satellite television, and the galley is better equipped than that on a ''Fremantle class vessel and better suited to use in heavy seas. The comfort of personnel is also significantly improved over the Fremantle''s, with air conditioning throughout the entire ship (excluding engine and machinery compartments). Introduction into service The introduction of the class into service has not been without problems. Since June 2005, all active ''Armidale''s have undergone operating restrictions on two occasions, both due to water contamination of the main fuel systems. The first occurrence, in September 2006, led to the suspension of operations by the patrol boats for a month, and the engineering controls were redesigned. The problem occurred again in January 2007, and led to an 'operational pause' while Austal redesigned the fuel system, engineering procedures were altered, and fuel quality criteria were tightened. The five ships yet to be completed were fitted with the modified fuel system during construction, while the active ships were refitted over the course of 2007. As of December 2007, no further fuel problems have occurred. A 20-berth auxiliary accommodation compartment was included in the design, for the transportation of soldiers, illegal fishermen, or unauthorised arrivals; in the latter two cases, the compartment could be secured from the outside.McKenna, ''Gas risk remains for navy boats However, a malfunction in the sewerage treatment facilities aboard in August 2006 pumped hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide into the compartment, non-fatally poisoning four sailors working inside. Use of the compartment as accommodation was banned across the class. In 2009, a sailor working in the compartment on a different vessel was also gassed with hydrogen sulfide, and carbon monoxide was regularly detected in the enclosed space. Operations The Armidale class ships are operated by the Australian Patrol Boat Group and are primarily tasked with border protection and fisheries patrols. As of 2009, up to seven Armidale class boats are assigned to patrols of Australian waters at any given time as part of Operation Resolute, with an increase to nine of the fourteen vessels when required.Australian Department of Defence, Operation RESOLUTE Ardent Division and four ships are based at [[HMAS Cairns (naval base)|HMAS Cairns]] in Cairns, while the other three divisions and ten ships are located at [[HMAS Coonawarra|HMAS Coonawarra]] in Darwin. Up to two ships (typically HMA Ships and , plus Aware Division) can be forward-based at Dampier, Western Australia, facilitating patrols of the oil and gas producing facilities located off the north-west coast of Australia. Units Appearances in fiction From the second season onwards of Sea Patrol, an Australian military drama series, the fictional Armidale class patrol boat HMAS Hammersley (pennant number 82) is used as the main setting.Idato, All ship shape In 2008, two ships were conflated to represent Hammersley: 42 of the 86 days of filming were spent aboard , with later pick-up filming aboard . Replacement Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030, the 2009 Department of Defence white paper, proposed replacing the Armidale''s, along with the RAN's mine warfare and hydrographic vessels, with a single class of multi-role offshore combatant vessels (OCVs). The new vessels, which could displace up to 2,000 tonnes and be equipped for helicopter or unmanned aerial vehicle operations, will use a modular mission payload system to change between roles as required. Although the 2013 White Paper committed to the OCV as a long-term plan, it announced that an interim patrol boat class based on an existing design would be acquired as a short-term replacement. Citations References ;Books * ** The chapter is available separately as ''Semaphore, Issue 4, 2006 in PDF and HTML formats. * ;Journal and news articles * * * * * ;Websites * External links * Armidale Class - Royal Australian Navy webpage for the Armidale class * Delivery Royal Australian Navy 56m - Austal Ships webpage for the Armidale class * The Armidale Class Patrol Boat Project: Project Management - Australian National Audit Office report on the acquisition of the class * New patrol boats named after regional cities - Department of Defence press release detailing the meaning behind the names of the first 12 Armidale''s Armidale-class patrol boats Category:Small combat vessel classes